volet

Forms

volet m (plural volets)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French voler + -et, from the verb in the sense “to float, flutter freely”, the verb being from Latin volō (“to fly”).^[2][3][4][5] Bloch and Wartburg compare the formation of foret.^[5] Littré notes that one might take it for a diminutive of voile¹, but the forms do not allow it, and that the sense “arrow” clearly points to the verb.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Guillaume Guiart's Royaux lignages (1306) uses it for the floating part of a headdress or a small veil.^[2] Bloch and Wartburg, the GLLF and the Grand Robert date this sense “veil, ribbon” to the 13th century.^[5][7][4]

Semantic evolution

The word first named fluttering pieces of cloth: a light veil or headdress, then a veil covering a helmet (late 15th century), which in heraldry became a ribbon hanging from the crest (1648).^[2][3] It also meant a light arrow (1476) and a kind of hollow wooden plate (1494).^[3][4]

A board or tray that was shaken to sort seeds and small things (1546) gave the figurative trier sur le volet “to pick with great care” (Rabelais, 1546 and 1552).^[2][3][5] At the beginning of the 17th century it came to mean a wooden panel protecting a window frame from the inside (1606), the sense now usual, and by analogy any movable panel: a cupboard door (1664), an organ shutter (1676), the outside shutter of a window (1830), the shutters of a shop front (1837).^[3][2]

In art history it named a wing of a triptych (1837); from this it came to mean, figuratively, one part of a speech, a plan or a policy (1921).^[2] Technical uses followed: the valve controlling the air in a carburettor (1907) and the movable flap of an aircraft wing (1928).^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1306 – Guillaume Guiart uses it for a small veil.^[2]
• 1336–1337 – It names a small dovecote in Reims accounts.^[2]
• 1476 – It means a light arrow.^[3]
• 1494 – It names a hollow plate.^[2][3]
• 1546 – Rabelais has trier sur le volet.^[2]
• 1556 – bavolet is recorded.^[5]
• 1606 – Nicot records it as a panel protecting a window.^[2]
• 1648 – It is used in heraldry.^[2]
• 1830 – Stendhal uses it for an outside shutter.^[2]
• 1837 – Michelet uses it for a wing of a triptych.^[2]
• 1907 – It names the air valve of a carburettor.^[2]
• 1921 – Barrès uses it figuratively for a part of a whole.^[2]
• 1928 – It is used for the flap of an aircraft wing.^[2]
• 1962 – Volet roulant is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shutter, a wooden or metal panel that protects a window and keeps out the light; by extension, any panel closing an opening.^[8][1]
2. A wing of a triptych or polyptych.^[2][1]
3. (figurative) A part or section of a whole: a plan, a policy, a trilogy.^[2][1]
4. A detachable part of a document in several parts.^[2]
5. (aviation) A flap of an aircraft wing.^[2][1]
6. (motoring) A valve controlling the air in a carburettor.^[2]
7. (dated) A board or tray for sorting seeds; now only in trier sur le volet “to pick with the greatest care”.^[8][2]
8. (heraldry) A ribbon hanging from the crest of a helmet.^[2][6]
9. (Catholic liturgy) A pall, a cloth-covered card laid over the chalice.^[2][6]
10. (regional) The white water lily.^[2][1]

Word family

• bavolet

Related words

• voler
• voleter
• volant
• volette
• Latin volō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert